When Double Diamond met Starlight

Diamond was unsure why he was leaving but he was driven towards it. It wasn’t shame or embarrassment. When he was able to get up and get his things an hour before dawn, he thought of Starlight and knew that he would miss her. He didn’t want to admit it but this had to have been a retreat and the stale nature of it tugged at his heart. He wished he could stay but he had never committed to a mare before and he doubt he had the strength to do it now. The plain fact was that he couldn’t see himself as equal to her. She was way more powerful. She wanted something and got it without asking for it. That was something he could never comprehend because it wasn’t about love.

He left in the bitter cold of the desert morning. The wind stung his face the whole way south towards the rising slopes of the mountain. He still remembered the path. He had lots of time to make it to the upper reaches where he could turn back and take one last look at the wastes.

The hours passed. Diamond stopped from time to time to catch his breath. His chest felt hollow the whole way and his hooves dragged as if made of lead. Something was seriously wrong as he only made it a fourth of the way before the day’s light began to fade. He sat against a pine tree and gazed at the sunset. His lungs felt as though they were full of liquid. He needed to find a place and desperation crept into his mind as each minute ticked by. In his state, he had to have been more susceptible to cold.

He entered a small cave cut into the cliff but he smelled something awful like dead animal. Tufts of fur littered the entrance and he knew that he had taken a wrong turn. He ran out of there as fast as possible despite not knowing if there was a dangerous monster in there or not. He was in no condition to fight if there was.

On the second day, he rose nearly up to where he abandoned his skis. But he never saw them. He didn’t even make it to noon before he dropped to his knees. He thought he was going to die.

Diamond shot his eyes open. He couldn’t believe it but he was back in the same room at Starlight’s place. He scratched his mane and tried to remember what happened but his memory was fuzzy. His stomach roared too which dazed him.

As if on cue, Starlight opened his door and entered with a tray. On it, a bowl of fresh oatmeal awaited him.

“You silly colt! Don’t you know you’re supposed to eat before you go out and play?”

Her voice sounded more condescending than usual and Diamond’s ears folded back.

“Why am I here, Starlight?”

She clicked her tongue and set the tray down. “You are back here. This is where we live.”

Diamond glared at her. “I don’t live here. That’s why I left.”

“You don’t understand,” Starlight said. She had a grin that he could swear looked evil. “You and I are the same. We don’t have homes and we don’t really belong anywhere. We’ve only been searching for a place to belong to.”

“What are you talking about, Starlight?” Diamond was very nervous and began to sweat despite there not being any fire to warm up the room.

She went to the door. “Look in the mirror. You will have a lot to think about so we’ll talk later.”

She left and he heard a lock turn shut. He flew out of bed and pulled at the knob but it wouldn’t budge. He turned and saw the window was barred shut. His heart raced. He then noticed a mirror on the wall and stared at it, looking at himself up and down. He saw nothing out of the ordinary until he turned his body and saw a great horror. His cutie mark was gone and in its place were two solid black lines.

Starlight wouldn’t let him out. For days, he was kept in there almost like an animal. He was fed and given water regularly but he had nothing else and after that trek up the mountain, there was no hope that he could somehow overpower her when she came to give him food. Despite resting all the time, he couldn’t really gain much strength. He was unstimulated and the room now had a collection of books and papers set out on a desk near the bed. On it, a treatise on equality spelled out neatly in calligraphy was waiting to be read. And a book with no title but two golden lines on the cover remained unopened for now.

“All this is for your own good. I think you will begin to see the light very soon,” Starlight said. She was placing his food on the desk. Simple onion soup by the looks of it. She had her back to him but she may as well have had eyes underneath that mane of hers since she seemed to have a perception unlike most other ponies.

“Do you have my cutie mark?” Diamond said wearily. His tail was kept around his flank with that ugly mark on it.

“It is kept with me for now. I do have plans for your mark though as well as mine. Do you think I would keep it and remain unequal?” She turned and faced him, her expression quite serious.

“Who knows. I don’t get what you’re doing.”

Starlight shook her head in disappointment. “That’s because you refuse to open the book and read. Once you do that, you’ll begin to understand. All I can do is help lead you there. You have to be the one to take the next step forward.”

She left him with the soup and the books. He drank the soup because he had no choice and the confinement kept going. On the second week, he finally went and brushed off a thin layer of dust off the material. By then, his white coat was thinner and turning grey from the lack of light. He smelled worse than the wheat field. He turned the page and read the first line then the next after that. Before he knew it, a whole page was read and he learned about the Staff of Sameness and where Starlight had found it.

She let him out nearly a month after he was first confined. By then he had read the entire book and all the papers. She questioned him thoroughly and he answered her to her satisfaction. And in all of that, he couldn’t help but absorb the material into his very bloodstream since that’s all he had with no nourishment from decent food, the air or even the sun. The only thing that felt strong on his body was his new cutie mark which, like a donated organ, slowly became a part of him. His very mind was being reshaped by the fabric of equality.
He took a bath and brushed his mane before they left the house. Outside, they took a walk. A few weeks ago, he would have run for it but Starlight must have known that he wouldn’t. She carried the magical staff with her. He had stopped being afraid of it some time ago. In fact, he hadn’t been afraid of anything lately as if all of his fears had been drained out of him with his mark. It actually was a weight lifted off his back.

“Can you see it? We’ll have our community stretch down in two rows with one street in the middle. It will be perfect,” Starlight said. She scraped the end of the staff in the dirt, tracing huge lines. “Each house will be exactly the same. No variation will be tolerated.”

“Surely your plan is good and all but there’s something lacking,” Diamond said.

She stopped and looked up. “What is it, then?”

“More ponies to join this new community.”

She smiled and looked at him proudly. “Indeed. There’s no community without ponies. But I can’t go get new ponies while I hopefully maintain my village. I need somepony to go and find those who will come.”

Diamond rubbed his hoof in the dirt. “Starlight, after all this time, I hope that you’ve considered me to be a full follower in equality.”

“Well…I am impressed by your quick progress but what do you imagine is left?”

“After you and I became more equal, I’ve been thinking about how to make our community grow.” He went and stood next to her. Both ponies now had the symbol of equality on their bodies. Some time ago, she had removed it and it surprised him as what little resolve he still had against her began to crumble. “And I think the time has come to begin the next step in the plan you’ve created.”

“Building the community? So soon? Even I hadn’t considered it just yet.” He quickly saw his idea flourish in her mind, the excitement building up in her eager grin. “Why not? I’ll begin construction immediately! You’ll go to the nearest town thirty leagues south of here and you won’t come back empty hooved,” she commanded. “I’ll have a dozen homes ready by the time you return.”

“I would have to go over the mountains for that and I am not sure that I can as I can only climb such places as good as anypony else.”
Starlight mulled the problem over for a second. “I will build you a gyrocopter and one big enough for several ponies,” she declared. “That will get you over the mountains and back.”

“Thank you, Starlight. I won’t disappoint,” Diamond said. She gave her hoof and he kissed it gently.

Some might say that Diamond didn’t love Starlight as much as he should have. He did love who she was, his first love and the only love he refused to abandon; and for all of her mistakes, he saw great potential in her. But he would have said that he loved her no more than anypony else. That was what equality was really all about.

He landed his gyrocopter in the middle of a bland looking village south of the desert. He didn’t even know the name of it but ponies turned their heads to look at the strange machine and protected their faces from the rising dirt.

He stepped out, his refreshed coat gleaming once more, and lowered his galoshes. He spied several ponies gazing at him directly. One all-blue colt and a mare with magenta hair. He snorted in amusement at the pathetic lot before him who, like he had used to be, were blind to the great truth. He then smiled his brightest. The edges of his mouth still pulled at his face but he was getting used to it really. The time has come to build their community. Starlight Glimmer was waiting for more friends.